Children's Home run by Witherslack Group Limited in Wiltshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 1 Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is part of a national organisation. It provides care for up to 5 children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, 5 children were living in the home. All the children were seen by the inspector.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is on the same site as a school and 2 other children’s homes that are all part of the same organisation. The inspector only inspected the social care provision at this home, and the other 2 children’s homes were not part of this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/07/2025 Full Good 25/02/2025 Full Good 20/02/2024 Full Good 08/11/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 3

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Summary of findings

The manager leads the home with a clear vision for children. She supports staff in building positive relationships with children and reviews the quality of care to identify where further training or adjustments are needed to better help children achieve. There have been some difficulties in the relationships between children; however, these have been identified and addressed by the manager, with positive change seen. Staff provide children with a warm and caring home, which helps them to feel settled and make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff build positive relationships with children. Children look forward to spending time with staff and doing the things that interest them. Children enjoy talking about their day with staff, sharing and celebrating their achievements. Staff carefully plan care for children based on their understanding of individual needs. Children enjoy a range of positive activities. They benefit from holidays tailored to their interests, as well as outings from the home. Staff nurture children’s love of the outdoors and being active, while also supporting those who prefer a slower pace. Children enjoy activities such as cycling, attending youth clubs and going to live music events.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of education and have supported children to develop positive daily routines. This has helped children to attend school more consistently. Three children were struggling with their school attendance, and all 3 have taken positive steps to improve this over recent months. One child has recently taken their examinations and is positive about their future steps.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to be healthy, helping them to attend regular appointments. Staff provide nutritious and varied food to support a healthy diet. They build on children’s specific interests to promote their physical and emotional health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to prepare for their future and next steps, whether that is where they will live, their education and examinations or independence skills. Staff encourage children to develop their cooking skills, regularly inviting children to cook for others.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have not always got along with each other, and the behaviour of some children has had a negative impact on others. Staff have encouraged children to discuss their concerns and raise complaints when they wish to do so. Staff encourage children to consider and respect the needs of others living in the home, helping to build tolerance and understanding.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents are positive about the support their children receive. They feel that their children are settled and well supported by staff. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 4

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff identify and report safeguarding concerns, helping to keep children safe in the home. Swift action is taken in response to practice concerns about staff, with proportionate action taken following multi-agency review. Children experienced a period of instability, with frequent, lengthy incidents involving multiple children, often overnight. This has been complicated by incidents also involving other children from neighbouring homes. At times, staff have struggled to intervene effectively and bring the incidents to an end. However, robust oversight and review from managers have helped to identify strategies to affect change. These were implemented and led to positive changes in the home. Providing children with consistent routines and boundaries has helped to prevent incidents from occurring and improve sleeping routines. Staff work to understand dynamics between children and implement strategies

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

to support them when the dynamics have not been positive. Staff work hard to build consistency in their responses to provide children with predictability and stability. Staff help children to understand the perspectives of all children in the home and help them to think about each other. Staff now work more cohesively as a team, with improved communication about support for children.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Physical intervention has been used with some children in the home, when incidents have become unsafe. Staff are clear and confident in their responses. The manager has good oversight of incidents, to explore how they were managed and what could be done differently in the future. However, there are missed opportunities to explore staff actions in the early stages of incidents, to better identify learning that could have prevented the need for physical intervention to be used.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The manager carried out an analysis and overview of incidents and restraints over a year period. This helps her to identify potential patterns, such as staff involvement, time of day and the impact that key events can have on the stability of the home. The manager identifies some actions from this, including developing the role of key workers and improved planning for the day.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff encourage children to have reflective conversations about key topics. This includes talking about things that have happened in the home and the impact on others. At times, consequences have been used following incidents. More recently, the use of consequences has reduced, with a greater focus on restorative approaches that better reflect and support the home’s therapeutic ethos.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

An experienced and confident manager leads the home. They have a clear vision and aspirations for the support the home will offer children. The responsible individual is a present leader who is familiar with children and staff, providing additional support to the manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are positive about working in the home and feel well supported by their managers. They receive regular training and support to develop in their role. They are particularly Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 5 positive about the support in place earlier in the year, while the home had a period of instability. They recognise that the strong support helped them to improve consistency in support for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are confident in their role and reflective when talking about the children and their needs. They understand the progress that children make and speak about this with pride. Staff receive regular supervision. This is tailored to individual roles and experience. Conversations focus on staff practice and support for children, unpicking key themes in the home for that month.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals are positive about the support provided to children. They identify positive joint working towards common goals as a strength. They say that communication is good and that staff help children to make progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has escalated concerns and delays about care planning for one child with the local authority. They have sought independent advocacy to support the child with this issue. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that there is continued development to support positive relationships between children in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.6)  The registered person should ensure that they consider with more scrutiny the actions taken by staff before incidents when critically reflecting on practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lupton Tower, Lupton, Carnforth, Lancashire LA6 2PR

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Hayley Lukaszewski

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Inspector

Clare Nixson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2594854 8 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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